Rethinking ‘purpose’
Setting up classrooms before the onset of the term is one of the most interesting, creative and as well as daunting task for any preschool teacher. Their ingenuity, creativity, fun element, ideas of child development, pedagogy and level of interaction with the kids are up for completely authentic analysis. The inquisitive eyes that will take in everything on the first few days, will determine how well you have planned and how the term is going to move forward. The ‘dramatic play’ centre is always the most challenging, layered and thought-out area. It is where most of the action takes place!
Jean Piaget, was one of the first psychologists to make a systematic study of child’s cognitive development. He found the role of play crucial and have stated various stages of play in tandem with the child’s developmental and biological age. “Play is the work of children” he had stated, emphasising the importance of play in the context of early childhood development of children According to Vygotsky, play enables children to regulate their internal capacities of managing actions among many other things.
Winnicott states that “it is only in playing that the child or the adult is free to be creative.” Child development theorists, child psychologists, teachers, parents and adults, emphasise the role of ‘play’ in the life world of a child. In a classroom, nothing elicits more joy than the two words “play time”! It is an indicator of a time where the children can be themselves, doing what they do best.
Play enables them to be themselves, share their emotions, imagine scenarios, build language competencies, solve problems and build their physical coordination. It enables them to form relationships and manage them. Ideate on rules and boundaries. Develop a sense of right and wrong, acceptable and unacceptable. It capacitates them to understand, create and respect boundaries. They do it all by themselves, without adult intervention, intention and interference. The question here is an attempt to understand the oxymoron like phrase, ‘purposeful play’. A relatively new idea in the block, ‘purpose’ has taken over ‘play’ in most of its applications. Perhaps it is also time to rethink what we perceive as ‘purpose’ and ‘learning’.
If a child is to have freedom for growth it must have freedom to regulate its own life, freedom from interference and supervision… To encourage the children to set their own bounds and to reason out their own discipline, needs a real faith in their capacity and a real courage—the courage to stand by and watch mistakes being made without constantly interfering to set everything right.
(Rabindranath Tagore Pioneer in Education, Essays and Exchanges between Rabindranath
Tagore and L.K Elmhirst)
This idea of a classroom where the children learn to set their boundaries, rules and understanding of what is helpful and what isn’t, resonates in the writings of Gijubhai Bhadeka as well. He has worked and written extensively on children and learning in the contexts of schools and outside. His work and philosophy developed in 1920’s still hold relevance and. application in our modern first world classroom context (Diwaswapan, Gijubhai Bhadeka)
Unknowingly and unconsciously, the same idea resonated in the numerous games played with the neighbourhood kids in the growing up years of many adults. It is still evident in the parks and playgrounds, open spaces not much of which is left, thanks to our relentless development. What is then happening in the classrooms of the institutions?
Schools are tightly bound by unseen shackles called curriculum, administration and management. The Holy Trinity of the institutions decides the fate of the teachers and children issuing a dictum about what is perceived to be ‘learning’ and ‘discipline’ and ‘desirable’.
The teachers in the classroom are ever more vigilant now. Armed with the checklists, phones, apps and tools they document every move, every action and inaction, every conversation, they are on a constant look out for that errant child who dreams, gazes, reflects, takes up more time, doesn’t feel like sharing, moves on to the next ‘learning centre’ doesn’t keep the materials back, doesn’t ask the right questions or talks too loudly! They are quick to note it down, analyse, discuss, diagnose and suggest a remedy! The untroubled calm of conventional classroom, where teachers deliver and children assimilate is maintained through imposed discipline. A façade is created of uniformity with only a sprinkle of questions during a certain ‘planned time’. It is quite alright to rest the little grey cells at the other times! The teachers cannot be solely blamed in this entire set up. Apart from a myriad of issues they also have superiors to report to, who have perhaps their own chains to unshackle.
The errant child of five or six is identified as the one with a ‘problem’ who is not able to respond to the purpose of the purposeful play. The ‘café’ that was set up in the classroom losses its element of play under the burdensome purpose of asking the right question, “how much is the bread?” Classrooms are confined spaces. Confined by time, flexibility, physical space they perhaps leave little room to manoeuvre. Over and above the objective driven day leaves little room for imagination and exploration of joy. Teachers are strictly instructed to instil discipline and include ‘teaching moments’ throughout the day. The more the merrier.
However, classrooms are not just about teaching letters numbers and geography. They are not about teaching or imparting from one on the podium to the rest on the floor. It is not about a hierarchy of knowledge. On the contrary, it is a place of mutual learning, conversations, dialogues, creative bursts, imagination, debates, disagreements, dreaming and a lot of fun! We need not look for teaching moments all the time. Perhaps it is time to ask the teachers and members of the management, what have you learnt from the children today?
If we stop looking for the purpose in the play, we, the adults will come home with authentic lessons of acceptance, problem solving, camaraderie, respect, laughter, looking beyond differences and the sheer joy of being there and doing nothing! Just because sometimes, ‘doing nothing often leads to the very best of something’- Winnie the Pooh
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